Jeffrey J. Parker is a partner in Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP’s Los Angeles office, where he specializes in business, products liability, and complex environmental litigation through trial and appeal, as well as environmental law. Although based in Los Angeles, he routinely handles matters throughout the entire state and works out of the firm’s many offices.
Mr. Parker has extensive experience in complex environmental and tort litigation and environmental counseling. His environmental and tort litigation experience includes dozens of products liability actions in California State and Federal District Courts and multi-district litigation proceedings in the Southern District of New York that arise out of MTBE contamination of drinking water aquifers, as well as actions brought under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (“CERCLA”), the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”), California Proposition 65, the Clean Air Act, and various state and federal criminal laws, environmental laws, or tort doctrines.
He has helped clients develop Prop 65 warnings programs and has guided clients through evaluating and responding to numerous pre-lawsuit notices of intent to sue under various state and federal statutes. He has also advised clients with respect to the California Air Resources Board and South Coast Air Quality Control Board variance proceedings, Regional Water Quality Control Board permit proceedings, and resulting writs of mandate.
Also, he has advised clients for 20 years on voluntary and agency mandated investigation and remediation of contaminated land, response to agency orders, handling of hazardous substances, and evaluation of potential human exposure to chemicals. He has experience in all aspect of litigation, including discovery, motions, settlement negotiations, mediation, arbitration, trial, appeal, and writ practice.
In addition, he has vast experience in business litigation and trials, including actions involving ownership of intellectual property, rights of first refusal, shareholder disputes, challenges to mergers, corporate dissolution, breach of contract, injunctions, and allegations of fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and violation of the Unfair Competition Law (UCL) and the Consumer Legal Remedies Act (CLRA).
His clients range from family-owned businesses to multi-national corporations in many diverse industries such as energy, petroleum, chemicals, aerospace and defense, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, real estate, construction, financial services, high-tech, computer manufacturing, consumer goods, sporting goods, and transportation.
In 2014, he obtained a major summary judgment victory disposing of most of the claims asserted by the Orange County Water District in a Federal multi-district litigation matter in the Southern District of New York. A portion of the case remains in the Southern District of New York while focus sites have been remanded to the Central District of California for trial.
For over 20 years Mr. Parker has advised clients with respect to conducting environmental and health safety investigations and remediation, as well as associated community and governmental relations issues. Examples include:
- preparing responses to California Water Code § 13267 and § 13304 orders issued by the Regional Water Quality Control Board; and
- working with client personnel and outside consultants on complex and comprehensive investigation and remediation projects and related regulatory submissions, as well as interacting and negotiating with community groups, neighbors, Regional Water Quality Control Boards, the DTSC, local oversight program agencies, and State and County prosecutors.
Mr. Parker’s Prop 65 experience includes development of Prop 65 warnings programs, advice on product reformulation, response to pre-lawsuit notices, and defense of lawsuits filed by the California Attorney General, County District Attorneys, and private enforcers related to alleged groundwater contamination and alleged exposure to chemicals in consumer products and occupational settings. Examples of matters alleging groundwater contamination involve industrial properties, refineries, bulk storage facilities, and service stations.
His consumer product cases have involved alleged exposure to numerous listed chemicals, including diesel emissions from school buses; phthalates in cosmetic bags/cases; eyewear and accessories; titanium dioxide in makeup; phenolphthalein and radionuclides in consumer water-testing products; benzene from using propane cooking appliances; toluene from manufacture of window coverings; numerous chemicals in hot mix asphalt, floor coverings, and new homes; and lead in cookware, computer power and other cords, electronics, and artificial turf.
Education:
- J.D., University of Southern California, 1991, articles editor and published author for the Southern California Law Review
- B.S., Aerospace Engineering, University of Notre Dame, 1987, with honors
Admissions:
- California
- U.S. District Courts for the Southern, Central, Eastern and Northern Districts of California
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
Memberships:
- Member, California State Bar
- Member, Litigation and Environmental Law Sections of the State Bar of California
- Member, Litigation and Environmental Law Sections of the Los Angeles County Bar Association
- Member, California Association of Business Trial Lawyers
- Member, National Aerospace Engineering Honor Society
- Member, National Engineering Honor Society
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